Can he swing from a web? No he can't, he's a pig

The Simpsons kind of ruined the Spiderman theme tune for me, I can only ever hear the Spiderpig version in my head now :)

But anyway, the reason the tune is in my head at all is that I have spent the afternoon racing to finish this:

which is my submission for Summer of Colo(u)r Week 5

As soon as I saw the colours for this week - red, royal blue and a splash of light blue - I had Spidey stuck in my head, and I couldn't dislodge him

So here he is on an 8"x8" canvas, the background is collaged with black and white comic book pages, knocked back a bit with a messy swipe of gesso.  Spidey himself is painted in acrylics with all the black details done with an extra fine Pitt pen

I'll be sending him over to Gloucester in the next couple of weeks for their big free art event at the beginning of August

And in other news, the BeStitched fabric circle journal that I have been a part of for the last 7 months or so, is now sadly drawing to a close.

The last theme that I had to work on was "rainbow".  The CJ owner wanted us all to make an 8" square mini quilt that would be soft enough for children to handle....so as this one is aimed at kiddiwinks I didn't do anything too arty farty - instead I had fun bringing a cheeky little leprechaun to life, revelling in his end-of-the-rainbow pot of gold:

The background is hand quilted in the ditch, made up from strips of fabric I already had in my stash, I was pleased I managed the whole rainbow.  

The leprechaun, based on some ancient clip art I had on my computer, is painted with acrylics onto heavy muslin and outlined with a sepia extra fine Pitt pen

I'll be sad to see the back of this CJ, I've really enjoyed it.....but I'm looking forward to receiving my own one back!

a Circle Journal catch up - Free Art Friday - and more Lost Dogs

Phew - I've been busy recently, here's a little round up

First of all, two entries in the fabric circle journal I'm taking part in over at UKScrappers - there's only one more after this month, pity, I've really enjoyed it:

This one's theme was vintage fashion.  Not my usual kind of thing, but that's what I enjoy about circle journals, they sometimes push me kicking and screaming out of my comfort zone!

I was originally going to use an image transfer technique for the focal image, but, well, this is how it turned out!  Oops!

So I painted her instead, and she turned out pretty cute.  In fact I think I would have left the piece like this if I was keeping it for myself....

...with no further embellishment than the frayed edges on the fabric.  But it wouldn't have been enough for the circle journal requirements, there needed to be at least a little bit of needlework in there, so I added some lace and ribbon and other frou frou in line with the theme :)

Next up, this month's theme was Wings, and I was torn between an angel, a death's head moth, or Icarus.  As you can see, Icky won out in the end:

Again a combination of a painting (acrylics) and embroidery on fabric, which I've done a few of now and I'm enjoying the combo.

This is also my entry for Summer of Color 2014, week one.  The colour palette we were given this week was aqua blue, and yellow, with a pop of hot pink.

Not sure if you can spot the hot pink, so here's a close up - it's the thread around the wings:

Now moving on to another circle journal - the Stay-At-Home CJ over at Collabor-ART ended this month - and sadly so did the site itself, I've decided to wind it down as it has gone deathly quiet there over the last year as we've all moved onto other creative endeavours.

I'll be sorry to see it go, but at least it bowed out with a really great project - the S@H CJ has really been a lot of fun!

Here's my final entry - the theme was cogs, wheels and rust:

It's a bit busy!  It looks better in real life really due to the metallic embossing powder behind the heart and the patina in it....  you'll just have to take my word for that :)

And here are all my pages together for the full 9 months of the project....

....no idea what I'm going to do with them now .... maybe I will donate some to....

Free Art Friday

how's that for a seamless link?

Because I have somehow found myself "volunteered" to organise Swindon's very own chapter of Free Art Friday ..... how did that happen???

All the details about our launch event and how things will shake out in the long term, are on the Facebook page : http://www.facebook.com/FreeArtFridaySwindon - please do check it out, I'm currently in crazy recruitment mode trying to persuade all my creative friends to join in :)

I've also been making lots of work myself to contribute to the big launch event - including 6 more "Lost Dogs":

And, for the kiddies to find, some stencilled My Little Ponies:

There's a ton more in the pipeline too, I'm hoping to contribute 20 or 30 more items to the cause - either for the Swindon drop itself or to swap with other artists and Free Art Friday chapters....so I'll continue to be busy busy busy!!!

Wouldn't have it any other way, though :)

Catch up time

I have really lost the knack for this whole blogging lark - as in I have no idea what to actually WRITE - but here are some pretty pictures of stuff wot I have been doing recently....

First of all, over there on the left, I'm pretty proud of this one.

It's a painting of Matthew the Raven (from the Sandman comics) - he took me months as he’s a big old fella (about 5 feet tall, see blurry pic of me below for scale) – and I thought I might never get him finished.  But I got there in the end – yay! - and I have proudly hung him at the top of the stairs.

Next up, a couple of circle journal pages:

This first one was for the Stay At Home CJ over on Collabor-Art – the theme was Mermaid Tales ….. you can see the whole gallery of everyone else’s entries here

And the second was for the Fabric CJ I’m a part of over at UKScrappers.  The theme, as you might have guessed, was cupcakes.  Very much not my usual style this one!  But I enjoyed the needle felting element, it’s always fun to get stabby!!

Another circle journal update....

I've done a couple more CJ entries since the last time I blogged, so for the sake of completeness, here they are (apologies this won't be a wordy post, I am soooooo tired and my bed beckons :) ):

This one had a Shakespeare theme, so I did a portrait of Titania and her beloved Bottom from A Midsummer Night's Dream

The theme for this one was Innocence and Experience....

And finally, this month's "Bestitched" fabric CJ entry - the theme was 'bejewelled' .... which made me think of jewel toned fabrics and sari silks, and paisley motifs....

So I hand cut a paisley stencil (fiddly little bugger!):

And then sewed together strips of fabric in jewel tones as a base for the stencilling:

A smattering of sparkles finished it off

Circle Journal catch ups

I haven't blogged since last September??? Blimey!  Didn't realise it had been that long!

So - anyway - here's a catch up on my current CJs

First up, my first entry for a new fabric based CJ taking place over on UKScrappers.  My theme is tattoos, and I've asked each participant to make a 8" x 8" mini art quilt:

That blooming swallow took me two weeks to embroider, and not all the stitching is perfect, but I am fairly pleased with the end result.  I look forward to the next six months, some of the themes are going to be a bit of a challenge for me I think, but that's why I enjoy CJs, I like being forced out of my comfort zone a bit.....

Next, and I'm not sure why I haven't blogged any of these already, I've been taking part for the last few months in a very different kind of CJ over at Collabor-art.  It's called a Stay At Home CJ, and the basic premise is that each person taking part has made a background, and chosen a theme - we all have been sent colour copies of the ten backgrounds, and each month we all work on the same background, to the same theme, blind.  There's a big reveal at the end of each month of what everyone did.  And the big plus points are that 1) there's no postage costs or the worry of things getting lost in the post and 2) you get to keep all your artwork

Here are my entries to date, and links to the Collabor-art posts for each month so you can see what everyone else did from the same starting point:

Month 1, theme "for the love of trees":

Original background, by Lou

My entry - the quote is Emily Bronte if I remember rightly

Full gallery here

Month 2, theme "Beastie":

Background by Carmen

My entry - Cthulhu

Full gallery here

Month 3, theme "steampunk":

Background by Pat

My entry - this was a 2 layer hand cut stencil which rather annoyingly fell apart on first use, so this is a one off!

Full gallery here

And last one for now (I'm currently working on Month 5), Month 4, theme "song lyrics":

Background by me

My entry - the lyrics are from Cochise by Audioslave

Full gallery here

Phew, that was quite the update, I'll try not to leave it so long next time....

Have you ever watched 'The Bridge'?

Nope, nor me ....

It's a Scandinavian crime drama, that has been enthusiastically recommended to me by a few people whose viewing tastes I trust, so I think I'll give it a go.

And it's also the subject of my entry in Pam's Desert Island Discs CJ - as the song I chose from her list is the programme's theme tune:

Hollow Talk by the Choir of Young Believers

The series starts with a female body being found, in two parts, at the centre of the bridge which joins Denmark to Sweden - half in Denmark's jurisdiction and half in Sweden's - and so that's the rather gory inspiration I took for my embroidered piece:

Not having seen the programme yet I have no idea if the actual body looked anything like this, am taking a bit of artistic licence :)

I do love working with material and embroidery for a change - which is just as well as the next journal coming my way in this circle is another fabric based one.....

Oh - and talking of making little pieces of art based upon / inspired by songs ...... can I interest any of you lot in taking part in Marit Barentsen's Top 2000 party this year?  It was so much fun last time around .....  go check out the list, there's at least one song there for everybody :)

Doh! silly me....

....of course it hasn't been 6 weeks.

I just forgot to blog the entry from last month.

Would forget my head if it wasn't screwed on etc etc

So the sparrow was entry 12 of 12

here's 11 of 12

for Lou x

6 weeks since I last made anything??? poor show!

....and this could be the last thing for a while as this CJ is now officially over :(

I've so enjoyed the 12 mini quilty things I've made for this fabric round robin, and would love to do more of the same, but the truth is they are so time consuming that it just doesn't leave me time to do anything else.

So I've decided to revert to paper for my next couple of circle journals - one arty farty one with the girls from UKStampers, and a more scrapbooky Disney CJ over at UKS. Both start in November, so watch this space in a few months.

But today, for the last time, it's all about the fabric.

This is my contribution to Irboo's CJ, I do hope she likes it.



The swallow was hand appliqued, and then the whole thing was quilted with low loft batting.

I don't know what else to say about it really :) I'm out of practice with writing blog entries lol



Oh yes - I added some metal letters to spell "fly", forgot that bit :)

see you again in November or December

Shroooooms

My 10th entry in the fabric round robin...only 2 more to go - sob - have really enjoyed it

This particular person's CJ (not really a "J" as it's not really a book) has evolved a nature theme on its travels, so I wanted to stay on topic...and mushrooms were the first subject that came to mind.

I used some fabric from a pair of kiddies trousers I got in the Matalan clearance store, and the same reverse applique technique that I used before on the jellyfish entry.

PS sorry for neglecting the blog...I only really post here when I've made something, and life has been way too busy lately for making stuff, I'm afraid.

I made a proper quilt!!! whoooot!!!

ok, maybe at 6 inches square it's not really much use, unless you're a dormouse and sleep in a very tiny bed, but it's a proper quilt all the same.

The top is foundation pieced to a traditional Amish pattern (although the batik fabrics aren't very Amish at all), and it has been quilted in (or at least close to!) the ditch.

The binding's a little unorthodox though, it's hockey tape lol. Does the job!

This is, like most things I've blogged recently, for the fabric round robin.

I was going to leave it as just the mini quilt, as I liked it as it stood, but decided to add a little embellishment. Hence the copper star bead and bugle beaded "rays".



This one's for Mandy over in Northern Ireland, hope she likes it!

Dedicated to ladies with complicated love lives everywhere...

This is my latest entry for the fabric round robin I'm a part of. Am enjoying this project so much, I'll be sad when it's over. 8 down, 4 to go.

I wanted to use needle felting on this one, so needed a fairly bold/simple focal motif. I settled on a heart and a triangle. No reason! :)

I didn't have a big enough piece of wool felt to use as the background, so sliced up two smaller pieces and sewed them back together in a stripey pattern.

Next the heart was felted on using merino roving, a border was cross stitched around it, and then I embroidered the three points of the triangle.

The background looked a little empty at this point, so I added some purple seed stitches to liven it up a bit.

A bit of red bias binding to finish, and it was all done.

A close up of all the textures, this one is very strokable:



Roll on the next one!

Watch the skies!

This is another terminally late entry from me for the fabric round robin I'm currently enjoying very much, if slightly behind the published schedule.

For this one we were given the finished backgrounds - a floral fabric. I don't really do flowers, so I wasn't sure where to go with my entry, until I decided that the foliage on my piece looked a little exotic....maybe even alien....

And thus Wilbur the extra-terrestrial was born.

Wilbur was embroidered on the way to an ice hockey game in Peterborough, much to the bemusement of my friend who was driving the car.

He didn't bring us much luck, unfortunately, we lost. Boo.

I hope Annie, his new owner/abductee, likes him anyway.

Let's go jellyfishing!

(I think I've been watching too much Spongebob)

I made this last night while waiting for the Canucks game to start, it's 2 weeks overdue, eeek! Sorry Irboo!

This is for the fabric round robin I am currently involved in (and am enjoying very much). We were each given a square of dark blue fabric to work with, with a request to leave the edges unfinished as the recipient isn't yet sure whether she is going to quilt them into a wallhanging or bind them into a book.

Other than that, anything goes.

I had been wanting to try reverse applique for a while, and I have some lovely "under the sea" style batik fabric, which kind of went with the blue backing fabric, so that's what I went with.

It was a toss up between fish swimming through coral, or a jellyfish and bubbles, but I swiftly discovered I can't draw fish to save my life....so a jellyfish it was to be :D

Close up so you can see where the upper layers of fabric have been cut through to reveal the other patterns underneath (NB both this and the main pic above would really benefit from being clicked on - the Blogger-shrunk pics mess the colours and the details up):



I wanted to wash this to encourage the edges to fray more, but was paranoid in case after all that work, it shrank or ran or something....but hopefully they will scuff up a bit with handling.

Old Skool!

I think I've actually finished this month's fabric CJ entry - for RainbowJoy - ahead of the due date - whoot!!!

I am still on my embroidery kick, can you tell? :D I really need to do something a little different next month, maybe felting....

Anyway - back to this month. The other CJ I am currently in is tattoo themed, and clearly the tattoo vibe has cross pollenated over to the fabric CJ this month.

I have always loved the old school "Sailor Jerry" style of bold, iconic tattoo designs, not that I have any like that me'self. But I love them on other people - swallows, nautical stars, pin up girls and of course the classic sacred heart.

So - I sketched a sacred heart with scroll onto linen, and embroidered over the top with black thread for the outline, and various different variegated threads for the colour.

The "MUM" is black satin cord couched onto the top of the scroll with black cotton.

The "old school" is hand drawn onto cream hockey tape

And I got the lovely fabric from good old ebay

I made a bit of a mess of the binding, which is a pain, (it's not as wonky at the top right corner as the photo makes it look, though) - but I'm still a novice at this quilting thang. I'll get the hang of it eventually.

I either need to learn to sew quicker....

... or go back to paper, nice, easy paper....I can finish a paper CJ entry in 1-2 days, these fabric ones take 2-3 WEEKS!

But that does mean a lovely feeling of satisfaction once it is finally done

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh :)

just like that :)

It didn't help that I decided to do this one entirely by hand not machine, but I figured I needed the practice if I am ever going to speed up....




This is an 8x8" quiltie for Wisher's book.

It started with the harlequin pattern which I embroidered in very sparkly gold thread on black cotton fabric with a music print, and then I built the rest around it in a similarly regal stylee.

Very unusual colours for me but I like how it (eventually!) came together



My by-hand zigzag stitch is painful to look at, it looks like I was drunk when I did it lol

In my defence though, it is really difficult to get a little tiny needle to come up through loads of layers of fabric, batting, and heat-and-bond, and actually emerge where you wanted it to!